


Black Sea

by orphan_account



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), F/F, Feels, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Non-Graphic Violence, Pre-Relationship, Protectiveness, Self-Hatred, Swimming Pools, Teen Crush, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 17:39:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17105138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Come down to the Black SeaSwimming with me, ah-ooh, oohGo down with me, fall with meLet's make worth it, ah-ooh~”ORCeles doesn't know how to swim and is accidentally pushed to the school's swimming pool during gym class... Secrets and lies alike are exposed not so long afterward.





	Black Sea

Right before Celes could process and understand what on Earth had happened, she began to see her own life pass in front of her eyes. Water entered her body with every anguished breath she took, chlorine and other chemicals burnt her eyes, thing that only made her vision extremely fuzzy, and her ears were ringing so much that she thought her head would split in half if the sound didn’t stop…

Truth be told, she had been pushed to the school's swimming pool by one of her classmates, Yasuhiro Hagakure, in a poor attempt to “make her loosen up a bit”. The girl had been thrown to the deepest area of the pool, the shock too overwhelming to let her even think or utter a single word.

The fact that Celes didn't know how to swim only made things worse.

When the gambler was about it give in, two slim yet strong arms embraced her by her waist, and soon enough she was brought to the surface.

Celes grabbed the edge of the pool as strongly as she could, her body shaking as she coughed all the water that had entered her system. She heard a collective gasp, but she didn't gave it any importance since she was too busy trying to calm her hectic heart and breathing in an even way again.

“C—Celes-chan?” The gambler heard Asahina Aoi, The Ultimate Swimmer Pro, muttering under her breath. Celes wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation, but sadly she couldn't.

After a minute of fighting to regain a normal heartbeat, Celes got out of the pool slowly, stopping midway when she noticed something that shouldn't have been there… At least not at plain sight.

“Goddamnit…” The gambler mumbled as she observed the innumerable amount or bruises, wounds and small scars that covered her arms. If her arms were exposed like that, then her entire body was too. Panic invaded Celes as she realized her fatal mistake.

_“I applied normal makeup instead of the waterproof one… Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Stupid, stupid Taeko.”_

Celes felt wet leather on both of her upper arms, pulling her upwards so that she was finally out of the pool. She looked up to find that the one who had pulled her out of the pool both when she was about to drown and seconds before had been Kirigiri Kyoko. The gambler felt insecure in front of her, especially now that one of her biggest and best-kept secrets had been revealed against her own will… She didn’t know what Kyoko was thinking about, her expression too neutral to be able to read anything.

_“She’s judging me, isn’t she? Oh dear Lord… Whatever chance I could have had with her must be disappearing in front of my own two eyes right now…”_

Kyoko knelt down, and leaned in until her mouth was millimetres away from Celes’ right ear.

“Let me accompany to your room… Please.” The detective whispered, her voice soft and what seemed to be reassuring. When Celes opened her mouth, her head shaking ever so slightly, Kyoko placed one of her hands on Celes’ right thigh. “Taeko, please… We need to talk.” Whatever answer Celes had, it died in her mouth.

Celes sighed and nodded, getting up, helped by the purplette.

As they walked towards the rexit, Kyoko shot a deadly glare to Hiro, who squealed and hid behind Yamada Hifumi. The detective groaned, gritting her teeth as she reluctantly looked away.

Kyoko fished her leather jacket, which she hadn’t kept in her locker that day due to the cold weather, and placed it over Celes’ shoulders.

They walked in a fast pace yet carefully, since it wouldn’t be the first time in which a teacher —which tended to be Yukizome Chisa for whatever reason— had caught a student trying to sneaking out of a class, thing that had happened to Celes the prior day which was actually the reason why she had been in gym class in the first place.

Five minutes afterwards, they were in the safety of Celes’ dorm.

Kyoko knew better than to ask directly about Celes’ wounds, but worry was eating and killing her inside out, the analytical and logical part of her brain clouded by deep concern that wouldn’t take its leave unless Kyoko was sure that she could help Celes somehow… To keep her safe.

“Taeko…” Kyoko began, whispering the gambler’s real name with caution. Celes had allowed her to call her Taeko, but she didn’t want to push too much Celes’ boundaries and make her uncomfortable. “What happened to you?”

The gambler took a shaky breath and sighed soundly. “I don’t know, you tell me. How did I end up in the pool?” Celes whispered, well aware of what the detective had truly asked her.

Kyoko looked at her and shook her head. “Yasuhiro-kun threw you to the pool when he noticed that you weren’t going to get in by yourself… So he waited for you to get near the deep area to throw you there. A prank, it seems.” Celes hummed and nodded absentmindedly. “You know that _that_ is not what I asked you about.”

Celes grabbed the jacket tighter and pulled it closer to her. Kyoko was endeared by the action, but she didn’t dig into that feeling much.

“Throughout my gambling career I’ve been assaulted and attacked by resentful people who had been soundly and pitifully defeated by me… Many of those altercations left their mark on me, as you can very well see.” Celes let out a dark chuckle as she pointed at some of her scars with her free hand.

Kyoko nodded, her eyes soft yet sad as she observed the wide number of scars. Some of them seemed to be deeper, others more superficial… Some had patterns, others were scattered. To see the confident gambler reduced to a bunch of wounds and scars broke Kyoko’s heart.

“However… Some of them are self-inflicted.” Kyoko raised her head when she heard those words, her eyes locking with Celes’ dejected ones. “It’s no secret that I hate myself… But sometimes the hatred runs deeper and stronger than usual, and that’s when I can’t control it. I… Am not as strong as I try to appear. I’m just a mundane girl who has a flamboyant persona as a mask to protect her crumbling heart…” Kyoko took a step closer, but Celes countered with a step backwards of her own.

“The reason why I went missing two days ago is because I was in a tournament which renown is… Undeniable. I won, as per usual, but there were some gamblers that just couldn’t accept defeat… Especially when they had lost against a sixteen year old “newbie”, according to what they said.” Another dark chuckle tore through Celes’ lips. “It appears they didn’t know who they were playing against.”

Kyoko walked towards Celes, who didn’t back away that time, and embraced her as tightly as possible.

“Long story short… They were enraged and ruined, so they decided to take revenge but not directly of course. They hired two bulky men and well… I think that my bruises and wounds are an obvious giveaway of what happened.” The gambler said, her voice weak and on the edge of breaking down.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have tracked them down and brought them to justice. I could have made them pay… All of them.” Kyoko whispered, caressing the back of Celes’ head.

“Because I didn’t want you to think of me as a weakling who needs to be helped. Even now I feel… Repulsion towards myself because I am acting so unlike I tend to do, that I’m afraid you’ll leave my side since you’ll find this part of me a burden.” Celes admitted, her voice finally breaking as tears ran free down her cheeks.

Kyoko shook her head and embraced her tighter. “How could I do that to you? God, Taeko, can’t you see that I like you? Everyone else has noticed, and I thought you’d notice it too sooner or later since you have a sharper mind than the rest…”

Celes froze right where she stood.

“But I guess that your self-hatred has been clouding your mind…”

“Yes, it has.” Celes admitted a minute afterwards, finally hugging the detective back. “Besides… I must admit that I have been way too focused on making a good impact on you and to look as appealing as possible to pique your interest that I didn’t notice… What you just said.” Celes admitted, a soft sob escaping her mouth unwillingly.

“You don’t need to try so hard… I do like you as you actually are. I like the way you smile when you truly are happy, the way you chuckle when you find something actually funny, the way you relax around me and seem to be… More transparent.” Kyoko reassured softly, rubbing Celes’ back reassuringly.

“I… I like you too.” Celes muttered, making the detective’s heart race as it had never before.

“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that…”

They stood in comfortable silence for a while, until the detective broke the silence once more.

“I promise I’ll try my best in order to keep you safe.” Kyoko stated, separating from celes to look into her eyes. She brought her hand to Celes’ face slowly, and whipped away the tears tendelry.

“I don’t deserve it, but thank  you…”

“Listen to me.” Kyoko requested as she caressed the gambler’s cheeks. “You do deserve it, Taeko. You deserve happiness and love and I’m more than willing to provide you with both things… That is, if you let me, of course.” The detective stated her promise as if it was a fact.

Celes’ eyes brightened up and she nodded fervently.

“I promise you the same, Kyoko.”

**Author's Note:**

> My friend Spacey is the one who came up with the fanfic's idea (even though it was a headcanon at first), and I just turned it into a fic, thus I dedicate and gift this work to her.  
> The summary is actually a fraction of the song "Black Sea" by Natasha Blume, which is from where I got most of my inspriation for this fic from.


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